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Department Well-Represented at IWF 2014 in Atlanta

SBIO students and professor Earl Kline working at the Department’s booth during the 2014 IWF

Faculty and students from the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials and the Wood-Based Composites Center I/UCRC attended the 2014 International Woodworking Fair & Expo in Atlanta, Georgia in August. The bi-annual show highlights equipment and tools, raw materials, and processes from almost 1000 exhibitors that support the wood products industry, and is in Atlanta, Georgia’s World Congress Center. The Department and WBC booths were located in separate Exhibit Halls, but gave Virginia Tech plenty of exposure during the three-day show. Both the Department and WBC booth hosted a steady stream of visitors, including alumni from both programs. Department Head Bob Smith and Professors Henry Quesada, Earl Kline, Brian Bond and Urs Buehlman were joined by students Jeremy Withers, Danny Hazelwood, and Kopy Magyar at the Sustainable Biomaterials booth. WBC graduate students Cole Burch and Kyle Mirabile joined WBC Managing Director Linda Caudill at the WBC’s booth.

WBC I/UCRC students Cole Burch and Kyle Mirabile hard at work at the WBC booth.

The Wood-Based Composites Center gave away an excellent door prize, the textbook Understanding Wood, A Craftsman’s Guide to Wood Technology, by R. Bruce Hoadley. Dr. Buehlman taught two workshops: Housing Markets and the Secondary Woodworking Industry: Lessons from the Downturn, and Lean Safety for Wood Products Industries. It was nice talking to all types of industry professionals about what we do, but most satisfying was seeing former students and hearing about their successes.